June 7, 2010

Higher European beef quota not for everyone

It may not be viable for all producers to take advantage of increased quotas to Europe, a beef exporting company in Australia said.

Authorities in the EU have announced its quota, to be shared between Australia and the US, would increase by 20,000 tonnes a year.

Sanger Australia spokesman Graham Greenhalgh said some producers have already started boosting feed to cattle to prepare for the European market.

However, he said Europe's strict restrictions on the use of growth hormones will deter some producers. "If you traditionally grow your cattle and you don't use hormones because you were supplying feeders into that feedlot industry, that tends to have been evaporating over the last couple of years with the demise of the Japanese feed market," he said.

"I think it's probably not a great deal of extra cost to be able to comply with it. If you're running a full HGP (hormone growth promotants) implanted herd I suspect it would be probably not a commercially viable option," he said.